In the face of requests from trans pressure groups, Facebook has finally relented and allowed people to change their gender after they've signed up for an account.
"It's taken them ten years," said trans campaigner, Sam Thyme. "Now people can go to an account and choose from a whole host of gender statuses."
The new status include transsexual, transgender, intersex and a dozen others. There is even Male and Female still present. Users also have the option to have their change of status displayed as a status update so that friends and family can like and comment upon it.
"I've changed mine to 'It's Complicated'," said Thyme. "Already I've had several people like this, and comment upon it."
As well as being able to change the gender, people can choose which pronouns their posts are accompanied by.
"There's the non-gender specific pronouns of zis, zim and ze," said Thyme. "Or the gender unspecific of 'their'."
This move has been welcomed by the majority of Facebook users, but Putin has threatened to block Facebook in Russia, despite having quite an active profile himself.
"I'm not surprised," said Thyme. "He doesn't understand the difference between gay and paedophile, so he's got no chance of understanding the difference between trans and gay."
